馃幉馃悏Gary Gygax Once Explained What D&D Is Really About
29K views 路 Mar 17, 2026 路 Entertainment
Comments 路 369
@daddyrolleda1 路 6 months ago 路 pinned
One thing that really stands out in these issues of Dragon is how much of AD&D still had to be worked out through discussion. The books existed, but people were still trying to figure out what the rules actually meant at the table.<br><br>I'm curious about your own experience with this. If you played AD&D in the late 1970s or early 1980s, how did your group handle rules questions about combat, hit points, or other unclear mechanics? Did you rely on Dragon Magazine, house rules, or just make a ruling and move on?<br><br>And for those who discovered the game later, do you think this kind of public rules discussion helped shape the way D&D campaigns eventually developed?
42
@Rodgarcia666 路 6 months ago
Dragon Magazine was our internet in the late 80's. Usually we got them 2 or 3 months later in Brazil, and it was like water in the desert. One issue "fed" about 20 people in the first few days, sometimes 3 or 4 read at the same time !
51
@M.Melnick 路 6 months ago
I learned how to play D&D from my brother and his friends. I recall many nights where these discussions and these magazines were debated and weighed. Ultimately, I inherited the same assumptions and perspectives from them about playing. It wasn鈥檛 until I was an older teen that I鈥檇 think about these things myself
21
@BusyBadger 路 6 months ago
I count myself fortunate by being taught finer points & philosophies of the game by older players from Milwaukee & Chicagoland when I was a kid in the late 70s & early 80s.
38
@DanPeacock 路 6 months ago
I remember sprinting to the junior high library to be the first to check out the latest Dragon. We still had no idea what we were doing and frankly didn't care. Ah to be young and excited again. Thanks Martin. Love these videos on these old issues.
45
@nedleeds908 路 6 months ago
Sad that entire generations won't know the anticipation and joy of magazines. The discipline of patience is lost on kids.
42
@lohdhshs 路 6 months ago
I knew Phil Foglio's name sounded familiar, he did a lot of art for MTG!
8
@JohnnyBrewer68 路 6 months ago
Martin asks: "If you played AD&D in the late 1970s or early 1980s, how did your group handle rules questions about combat, hit points, or other unclear mechanics? Did you rely on Dragon Magazine, house rules, or just make a ruling and move on?" Yes, we did play AD&D in the late 70's and early 80's...until 1984. We didn't have disposable income, so Dragon magazines were a rare treat. When we came across something that seemed unclear, I (the DM) would make a ruling, and sometimes, later we would revisit the problem and agree on how to do it going forward. I always tried to be fair, and my friends knew that, so cooperative play got us through those issues.
12
@coachlarry6773 路 6 months ago
I think we used Dragon just like we used the core rulebooks. Take what we like and use that, and leave the rest. I think most people never played using every single rule that AD&D had. Just your own way.
30
@paulsmall5122 路 6 months ago
It was White Dwarf for me in the UK.<br><br>I actually started reading the magazine before I purchased my set of basic D&D, followed by buying AD&D.<br><br>Keep on the Borderlands worked for a really long time for us.
5
@bobh9492 路 6 months ago (edited)
I was Lucky to know a great group of older people in their 40s in the early 80s when I started in on dnd, adnd , gamma world and other games. They were already playing homebrew campaigns and campaigns within the older established worlds. It was a great time.
10
@karasukafka6918 路 6 months ago
I really appreciate these kind of exploration, to show the history more accurately, helping us to understand how the development been unfolded.
10
Up next
馃幉馃悏 Why Did Everyone Come Back to B/X D&D?
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 10K views
馃幉馃悏The Moment D&D Became More Than Dungeon Crawls
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 20K views
馃幉馃悏Are 1st Level Magic-Users Really Useless? The Evolution of the Magic-User Class in D&D
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 44K views
馃幉馃悏 Why Does D&D Even Have Clerics?
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 37K views
Live Character Creation Showcase | Arches of Apsyildon
Architrave Gaming 路 225 views
馃幉馃悏How Dungeons Actually Worked in Early D&D
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 47K views
What Did People in Ancient Rome Actually Do All Day?
Rome Unscrolled and Before Civilization 路 1.3M views
馃幉馃悏 The Lost D&D System That Made Parties Work
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 46K views
The History of Original Dungeons & Dragons
DM It All 路 1.1M views
馃幉馃悏When D&D Was About Campaigns, Not Heroes
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 43K views
馃幉馃悏From Tombs to Spaceships: How the S Series Changed D&D
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 24K views
Where Does Blue Light Get Its Extra Energy From?
Sleep On Physics 路 23K views
It's Over: Bonds COLLAPSE to WORST Levels Since 2002 - Netherlands BANS Microsoft
House of El 路 183K views
Guards! Guards! #1 - Terry Pratchett | The dog is the smartest officer here | Fantasy AudioBook
Discworld Radio 路 74K views
馃幉馃悏 Why D&D Divided Magic Into Schools
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 29K views
馃幉馃悏Why Early D&D Didn鈥檛 Try to Be Fair
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 57K views
El Alamein: If you still can't do combined arms, at least use a lot of artillery
WW2TV 路 99K views
馃幉馃悏 The Magazine That Shaped D&D
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 14K views
馃幉馃悏Early D&D Combat Procedures: Why They Worked (and What We Lost)
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 43K views
DnD's lead designer explains how 5e fell apart
Questing Beast 路 707K views
The LOST Epoch: Unexplained Gaps in Human History | History for Sleep
Sleepy Time Historian and Sleepy Time Origins 路 624K views
Where Was Germanic First Spoken? Language, Genetics & Archaeology
European Origins 路 70K views
Audio Book "Eaters of The Dead" by Michael Crichton Read by Victor Garber Abridged 1998 Adventure
Dennis Patrick McDonald 路 85K views
First Look - WFRP 5e - let the edition wars begin!
Garblag Games 路 11K views
馃幉馃惒 Why Oriental Adventures Feels So Different from the Rest of AD&D
Daddy Rolled a 1 路 10K views
You Are Every Person Who Has Ever Lived - Quantum Proof
Joe's Space Science 路 201K views